Finding Arcadia: Images of Arcadia in Classical Antiquity.

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Tanja Susanne Scheer
• Subject Area: Ancient History
• Term: from 2012 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 231658299

In antiquity, Arcadia is not the pastoral idyll of our modern era. For Greeks and Romans this landscape had a highly ambiguous character. Alongside Arcadia as a real and geographically delineable area in the Greek mainland, ever since the time of the Homeric epic there also existed certain stereotypes of an imaginary landscape. Arcadia can be a paradigm of primitiveness or a model of civilization - a sinister antediluvian place with werewolves and ogres, or a venerable landscape whose inhabitants have given to mankind certain seminal inventions and which one can proudly correlate with various historical contexts. Ancient images of Arcadia were not constant but changed according to the subjects perspective and temporal placement (classical era, Hellenism, the imperial period). My project will pursue these changes, analyze their forms, origins and contexts, and compare and contrast the various roles and functions of 'Arcadia' in the Greek and Roman cultures. At the center of my analysis is the Arcadian self-image with its specific self- ascriptions, which are to be found in the literary sources and above all in local evidence such as inscriptions and coins. Building on this I will show just how Arcadia was perceived in the Greek world as well as what places, periods and pathways to the Arcadian images were of importance for the other Greeks, particularly the Athenians. I will also be analyzing the view from outside and showing how and why the Romans were able to find 'their Arcadia' despite spatial, temporal and linguistic distance from the original. Ancient images of Arcadia will be dealt with primarily within the cultural self- understanding entailed in myth. It is here that the past was constructed and made fruitful for the political present. Depending on the context, Greeks and Romans created heterotopias, mythical landscapes, and a variety of imaginary Arcadias that could be used as model, terrible visions, or possibly also as images of longing in concrete political disputes and contests of prestige. In the reality of the ancient world - and we see this, at latest, with Pausanias Periegesis - these imaginary landscapes have an impact on the real Arcadia, the external expectations becoming concretely apparent.This systematic analysis of ancient images of Arcadia from a variety of perspectives will allow for new findings regarding the history of a landscape and the self-depiction of its inhabitants. Moreover, this analysis will make a contribution to a greater understanding of the reception of Arcadia in Greece and Rome. It will show that Arcadia was an important factor in the self-image of the Greeks and Romans, for whoever finds 'his' Arcadia is above all revealing himself.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants